weird steering noises
Thread Starter
Launching!
iTrader: (1)
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 255
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From: San Luis Obispo, CA
weird steering noises For the last 6 months, my car has made weird steering noises at low speed.
The noise sounds like the rubber "squirming" on the road (like when you turn the wheel when sitting still), only much much louder. It does this when you turn the wheel while sitting still. I've tried lubing the joints on the intermediate steering shaft and I've checked the inner/outer tie rods (there's a little play on the driver front at 3/9 o'clock) but can't seem to find anything. Is this the sound of a rack going out? I was getting a popping noise too when turning the steering wheel one way and then back the other direction but I tightened the rack bolts down and that pop seems to have gone away. The car has 96k on it and has never made noises like this before.
The outer tie-rods were replaced about 4yrs ago (~50k) do to wear from having the car lowered. I replaced them with Baer Tracker pieces. The car does seem like it might be slightly wandering when driving down the road but nothing like when the original tie rods were going out and they didn't make this noise either.
The only other thing is maybe the tires? They're BFG g-force sports and are probably have around 20k+ mi on them.
I'm kind of leaning towards replacing the tie rods since there is a little bit of play at 3/9 on the wheels. Should i replace inner and outer since I'll have to get an alignment anyways or do you think the Baer units are still okay? Also, can you change the inner tie-rod on the vehicle? The GM service manual only has off-vehicle replacement instructions that I could find. Also, do you have to have the specialty tool listed to remove them?
Thanks!
The noise sounds like the rubber "squirming" on the road (like when you turn the wheel when sitting still), only much much louder. It does this when you turn the wheel while sitting still. I've tried lubing the joints on the intermediate steering shaft and I've checked the inner/outer tie rods (there's a little play on the driver front at 3/9 o'clock) but can't seem to find anything. Is this the sound of a rack going out? I was getting a popping noise too when turning the steering wheel one way and then back the other direction but I tightened the rack bolts down and that pop seems to have gone away. The car has 96k on it and has never made noises like this before.
The outer tie-rods were replaced about 4yrs ago (~50k) do to wear from having the car lowered. I replaced them with Baer Tracker pieces. The car does seem like it might be slightly wandering when driving down the road but nothing like when the original tie rods were going out and they didn't make this noise either.
The only other thing is maybe the tires? They're BFG g-force sports and are probably have around 20k+ mi on them.
I'm kind of leaning towards replacing the tie rods since there is a little bit of play at 3/9 on the wheels. Should i replace inner and outer since I'll have to get an alignment anyways or do you think the Baer units are still okay? Also, can you change the inner tie-rod on the vehicle? The GM service manual only has off-vehicle replacement instructions that I could find. Also, do you have to have the specialty tool listed to remove them?
Thanks!
Thread Starter
Launching!
iTrader: (1)
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 255
Likes: 0
From: San Luis Obispo, CA
yes i did. I even did the 'jack it up in the air and turn the steering wheel from lock to lock ~6 times to try bleeding it' procedure that I read on the forum too.
